Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in my Member's statement, my question is to the Minister of Housing. My first question: will the Voices on Housing survey be shared with the community leaders to a public forum? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had previously made a commitment and I have made that commitment at every meeting that I have made, bilateral meetings, individual meetings with Aboriginal governments, municipal governments. I have committed to sharing the Voices on Housing report to Aboriginal and municipal governments, and I will do that, but it will not probably be in a public forum. The reason is because I need to get them out timely and we have 33 communities all with municipal governments and Aboriginal governments. There are huge lists, and if I was to do them all individually it would take me many, many months. So, no, I will be distributing the information via letter. We are in the process of doing that now, and it is not that I would not like to it publically. It is that we need to be timely in the distribution. Thank you. Mr. Speaker.
Will the Minister commit to a regional Sahtu forum to engage in the delivery of the survey?
Again, as I stated in the previous question, I have already made commitments to the Aboriginal municipal governments to get them out in a timely basis. It was tabled the other day, and so we are working on getting it out immediately. However, I have not done the Sahtu tour yet, and there was a commitment made by our Premier to get Ministers out into all the communities. So I would be more than willing to do a tour of the Sahtu to be able to take any input that the communities may have in any of the portfolios that I carry, including the Voices on Housing document.
Thanks for that response to the Minister. The attraction in the Sahtu this time of year is very ideal for fishing. As part of the consultation here, will the Minister commit to developing an action plan based on the survey so that a next step engagement is consulted with the forum if it is on a regional basis, and commit to that action plan being delivered as well?
Now that the survey is completed, we are in the process of actually developing an action plan not for the dissimilation of the material, but also to make sure that we meet all the needs and that we address the policies and programs in a timely manner, defining which ones can be solved early, which ones will take more consultation and time to deliver. So we are developing an action plan on how to do that now? We are going to try to be as inclusive of communities as possible in the determination of the final policies, so once we roll out with the policies we will be looking for feedback. At this point, I cannot say what that feedback will look like because we are still developing that strategy.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to engaging community consultations or a regional forum with the Minister, so would the Minister provide me some suggested dates here over the coming summer on the availability to discuss in some form to include community leaders of the Sahtu and also discuss some of the fruits of the labour of this document here for the rest of the term so the general public can have an idea what are the objectives for the term of this government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As stated before, I am more than willing to visit the Sahtu region for a constituency tour to address all issues that community members in that region may have including the housing survey, and I am committing to try to be as inclusive as possible in the development of the policies and the new programs going forward. However, I cannot state yet what that would look like because we are still developing the plan on how to roll that out.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
